Pokémon Red Version and Pokémon Blue Version were the first Pokémon games to be released outside of Japan, becoming available in North America on September 28, 1998,[1] in Australia and New Zealand on October 23, 1998 and in Europe on June 10, 1999[2][3] or October 5, 1999[4][5] (depending on the source used). In North America, the pair closely followed the debut of the anime's English dub, which began airing on September 8, 1998,[6] and within a year, Pokémon was well known as a popular Nintendo franchise.

Unlike later generations, Red and Blue were not the same as their corresponding Japanese releases. Japan had gotten their first pair of Pokémon games as Pokémon Red and Green, which in all aspects were the same as Red and Blue with the exception of Pokémon sprite designs and more numerous bugs. When preparing the games for their English release, it was decided that Red and Green would be merged with Japan's already-released third version, Pokémon Blue, for its improved graphics, sound, and lack of easily accessed gamebreaking glitches.

Despite being released towards the end of Game Boy's lifespan, they quickly became the best-selling non-bundled games released for the Game Boy as well as being the best-selling role-playing games of all time.

Along the way, the player will meet up with his rival several times and have multiple run-ins with the insidious Team Rocket, a criminal group that seeks to use Pokémon for their own gain. The player will ultimately find out that the boss of this evil group, Giovanni, is actually the final Gym Leader in the game.

At the end of the game, the player will have a battle against the Champion, Blue, after beating the Elite Four.

After the credits, the player will gain access to Cerulean Cave in Cerulean City and be able to battle strong Pokémon. The player will be able to battle and capture the strong legendary Pokémon Mewtwo.

Blurb

You've finally been granted your Pokémon Trainer's license. Now, it's time to head out to become the world's greatest Pokémon Trainer. It's going to take all you've got to collect 150 Pokémon in this enormous world. Catch and train monsters like the shockingly-cute Pikachu. Face off against Blastoise's torrential water cannons. Stand strong when facing Pidgeot's stormy Gust. Trade with friends and watch your Pokémon evolve. Important—no single Pokémon can win at all. Can you develop the ultimate Pokémon strategy to defeat the eight Gym Leaders and become the greatest Pokémon Master of all time?

Connectivity

Players may trade Pokémon between two cartridges using a Game BoyGame Link Cable. To take full advantage of this feature, several Pokémon are exclusive to each game of the pair, making it required that a person trade with others in order to complete their Pokédex. The Game Link Cable also makes possible battles with another player, allowing one to pit their Pokémon against new challenges. The games can trade and battle with Western versions of Red, Blue, and Pokémon Yellow. They can also trade with Western versions of Pokémon Gold, Silver, and Crystal via the Time Capsule. Red and Blue are completely incompatible with games from Generation III onward.

Trades between Pokémon games in different languages are possible in this generation; however, a Japanese game cannot connect with a non-Japanese game. The latter will always result in corruption if attempted. This is due to the fact that the games cannot automatically translate the Pokémon data from Japanese to a different language or vice versa, since there is not enough room on either cartridge for all of the text, namely kana and the Latin alphabet (a feature that later became possible). If a battle between a Japanese game and a non-Japanese game is attempted, the battle simply does not work, with the save files left unharmed.

Red and Blue are compatible with Pokémon Stadium and Stadium 2. While link battles are not possible directly between Red and Blue and the Generation II games, a player may challenge a Generation II game using Stadium 2.

Pokémon

Each game contains pre-recorded data on 151 different species of Pokémon, including Mew, a Pokémon unavailable to players of either game under normal conditions. Despite this, not all Pokémon are available to the player, regardless of version; trades must occur between players in order to complete their Pokédex without the use of cheats or glitches. Mew is the only Pokémon in these games that must be acquired through attending either a Nintendo sponsored event, a glitch, or cheating.

The following Pokémon are only obtainable in one game of this pair. In order to obtain Pokémon exclusive to the other game of this pair, they must be traded either from that game or from another compatible game of Generation I or Generation II which has that Pokémon available.

Changes from the Game Boy releases in the Virtual Console releases

The Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console releases can link with other Virtual Console Generation I core series games via Nintendo 3DS wireless communication, simulating the Game Link Cable. When initiating a link, the Virtual Console menu on the touch screen replaces the Cable Club attendant's dialogue.

Poké Balls

Some concept art depicts Poké Balls on the ground, in two pieces. This is most likely just a carryover from when Pokémon was still the concept of Capsule Monsters. Strangely, the original Poké Ball sprites from Pokémon Red and Green lack the button in the center of the Poké Ball.

Rebattling Trainers

In an interview with Shōko Nakagawa in her book Shōko Nakagawa: Pokémon Taught Me The Meaning of Life, Tsunekazu Ishihara revealed that originally, the game was programmed to trigger a battle with each Trainer any time the player walked by them, even if the player had already defeated them in battle previously. The wild Pokémon encounter rate was also significantly higher originally. The Trainer rebattling was omitted from the final release and the wild Pokémon encounter rate was significantly reduced.[8]

GameCenter CX

This section is incomplete.Please feel free to edit this section to add missing information and complete it. Reason: Expand based on the information provided by Satoshi Tajiri, if applicable.

A Japan-exclusive special Pokémon episode of GameCenter CX, known as Retro Game Master outside of Japan, included an interview with Satoshi Tajiri, where he revealed early Pokémon character profiles of Nidoking, Slowbro and Kadabra. Notably, they are given a National Pokédex number which matches their internal index number, rather than their final Kanto Pokédex number. Nidoking, for instance, is noted as being #007, rather than #034, either suggesting that there was another method of ordering the Pokémon proposed, or that they reflect their ordering in the internal data. The latter is supported by interviews with Ken Sugimori, which verify that Rhydon, which has an index number of 001, was the first Pokémon ever created, and early sketches from Capsule Monsters featuring Rhydon. Nidoking is also referred to as 「マイコー♂」 Maikō♂, indicating that there were either placeholders or alternate names for Pokémon before the development of Pokémon Red and Green had finished.

In addition to this, it was confirmed in an interview with Shigeki Morimoto that there were originally going to be 190 Pokémon in Generation I, indicating that the 39 MissingNo. found in the internal index are formatted Pokémon.[9]

As Red and Blue

Pokémon names

During the promotional period that preceded the English release of both the anime and Pokémon Red and Blue, a large amount of Pokémon were shown with different names from those they had in the final releases. Some of these names were similar to their final names, but some were quite close to their Japanese names, and others were completely different from any current Pokémon name.

Text

"The Brock wants to fight!"

Before the English releases of Pokémon Red and Blue, screenshots were released of a battle with the rival where the text string "The Blue wants to fight!" was used. While this text would work with a typical Trainer, such as "The Lass wants to fight!" or "The Hiker wants to fight!", as they were not given personal names until Generation II, it would cause problems with Gym Leader, Elite Four, rival, and link battles, causing them to read "The Misty wants to fight!" or "The Lance wants to fight!", as these Trainers did not at the time have titles, only their names. Because of this, the definite articleThe was dropped in the final releases, leading to the somewhat odd sentence style in Generations I and II of:

A screenshot in the instruction manual and player's guide of English Red and Blue still contains the text "The Brock wants to fight!", possibly suggesting a late removal. The instruction manual also mentions Pokémon Leaders instead of Gym Leaders.

A slightly different grammar was also going to be used for other text strings.

"{Player} sent {Pokémon} out!" instead of "{Player} sent out {Pokémon}!"

"A wild {Pokémon} appeared!" became just "Wild {Pokémon} appeared!" (this change would be reverted in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, where it has been kept since then)

Similarly, "The enemy {Pokémon} fainted!" became simply "Enemy {Pokémon} fainted!" (also reverted in Diamond and Pearl as the definite articleThe was reinstated)

"Oddish Cut down a bush!"

On page 31 of Nintendo Player's Guide for Pokémon Red and Blue, a different text string for using Cut on a tree in the overworld was used. It reads "Oddish Cut down a bush!", being used in a screenshot when cutting down the tree next to the Vermilion CityGym. The fact that Cut can also be used to destroy areas of tall grass may have been the reason for the change to "{Pokémon} hacked away with Cut!" in the final releases.

Reception

The games received positive reviews from the press, receiving a perfect 10/10 "Masterful" rating from IGN.[12] The games received an average score of about 89% on GameRankings,[13] the second highest on the site for a core series Pokémon game, and the 3rd and 4th best score for a Game Boy title.[14]

Criticism

While bringing Pokémon to international fame and continuing the legacy of the Japanese Red and Green, Pokémon Red and Blue have been met with much criticism, especially compared to more recent releases in the series. Aside from the number of glitches present in the games, many Pokémon look very little like their appearance in the anime, which premiered nearly simultaneous with the games' North American release, or later games, which improved on several other aspects as well as the graphics.

The two games are also notorious for their several drastic glitches, among them the fabled MissingNo., Glitch City, and the Mew glitch. Despite this, the glitches are arguably minimal points of criticism due to the reward value that comes from their activation, such as the multiplication of a player's sixth item that happens when MissingNo. is encountered.

Staff

Trivia

The blurb on the back of the boxes states that 139 different Pokémon can be obtained in each game without trading. This, however, includes all Pokémon that the player must choose between (i.e., both the Omanyte and Kabuto families are counted). Therefore, the true total of different Pokémon obtainable in one adventure without trading is 124, which excludes the two unchosen starter families, one Fossil family, two Eeveelutions, one of Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan, and the four Pokémon that only evolve when traded.

This obtainable is based on the Caught status in the Pokédex. However, if one of each Pokémon is counted to be on your Box, this will further go down to 120. This excludes the first two stages of the starter Pokémon you chose, the first stage of the Fossil family, and Eevee.

According to the Pokémon Pokédex Collector's Edition (Prima's Official Pokémon Guide), Red and Blue were developed by a team of nine members.

Prior to the Virtual Console release announcement, Pokémon.com listed Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow with a PEGI rating of 3.

The old man who trades the player an Electrode on Cinnabar Island claims that the Raichu he received "went and evolved". As Raichu does not have an evolved form, this is not possible. In the context of Pokémon Blue, it makes sense as the player trades away a Kadabra, which evolves through trade, for a Graveler.

An error made during development causes the Pokémon depicted during Professor Oak's introductory lecture to be a Nidorino but with the cry of a Nidorina. This error was inherited from the Japanese Red, Green, and Blue games.

The boxarts for Pokémon Red, Pokémon Yellow and Pokémon Silver are the only three instances where the English Pokémon logo is shown partially covered by some element (in this case, Charizard's head).